After experiencing their
worst year of redemptions since the financial crisis, hedge
fund managers have seen an upswing in flows since the beginning
of 2017, according to industry reports.

Research released by
eVestment this week showed that investors poured $15.8
billion into hedge funds in March, for quarterly net inflows of
$21.9 billion. A similar report published by HFR on Wednesday
found that flows had not quite turned positive yet  but
it noted that redemptions were at their lowest since the end of
2015.

Recent positive performance may have renewed investor
interest, according to eVestment, which
reported average returns of about 8.5 percent for the 12
months ending
in March. This combination of higher returns and fewer
redemptions led industry assets to increase to roughly $3.1
trillion.

Sophisticated investors continue to strategically
position for market trends that drive hedge fund
performance, said HFR president Kenneth Heinz in his
firms report, citing the increased possibility of
geopolitical conflicts as one such factor.

However, the industry-wide performance improvements may just
be driven by a handful of high achievers. In its own
report released Thursday,
Preqin identified two hedge fund managers that more than
doubled their investments over the past 12 months.

These outliers  Rosalind Advisors and Adaws Capital
 all reported returns upwards of 108 percent for at least
one fund. Two Rosalind funds, Rosalind Offshore Fund and
Rosalind Capital Partners, earned more than 125 percent each
with their event-driven strategies.

Other top performers included Spartan Fund Management 
whose long-short equity fund, Teraz Fund, returned 99 percent
since March 2016  and Global Advisors, which earned 97.2
percent through its Bitcoin Investment Fund.

Note: Due to an error in a Preqin report detailing
investment performance for S Squareds long-short equity
fund, Leaf Investment Partners, an earlier version of this
story contained incorrect performance information for the fund.
That fund has returned 19.35 percent over the past 12
months.

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